Muzaffarnagar riots panel report: BJP demands CBI probe

New Delhi: BJP on Monday demanded a CBI probe into the Muzaffarnagar riots even as it termed the one-man judicial commission's report as an attempt to cover up the role of the Samajwadi Party government in the conflagration.

The party said the SP government is the "main culprit" in the riots which were "triggered" by its leaders for its "vote bank politics".

Representational image. AP

"The SP government is responsible for riots. It is the main accused. Its vote bank politics fuelled the riots. If it had taken effective action against the accused involved in killing two youths, then violence would not have erupted," the party's national secretary Shrikant Sharma said.

The Akhilesh Yadav government should order a CBI probe into the riots, he said.

Sharma alleged that Azam Khan, a minister in the UP government, used his influence for securing the release of the people responsible for killing two youths which added to the unrest and violence.

He said the state government had learnt no lesson from the riots as communal incidents continue to occur across the state on a daily basis.

"People will teach the government a lesson during elections," Sharma said.

Uttar Pradesh will have Assembly poll early next year.

The one-man judicial commission of inquiry that went into the 2013 Muzaffarnagar communal riots has concluded that intelligence failure and laxity on the part of police led to the violence that left 62 people dead but is silent on the role of the Akhilesh Yadav government in the conflagration.

700-page report of the Justice Vishnu Sahai Commission also accused the media of putting out exaggerated reports and spreading rumours that fuelled violence.